Freight forwarding and shipping is a global business, companies all around the world are involved in the global shipping business. Conventionally, shipping charges have solely been determined by weight of the freight. A weight-based shipping system provides easy, accurate, and fast shipping charges and can be integrated into freight moving devices like a forklift or other transportation device. The shipping industry has since moved toward dimensional weighting, whereby the volume of a package is included in the transport cost.
Volume is more difficult to measure than weight. In a volume-based freight system, shippers are tasked with assigning volumes to freight with the risk of challenge from the carrier(s) and/or receiver. The industry requirements for quickly transporting freight are very high, and carriers become increasingly pressured to process freight quickly, which makes manual dimensioning of freight infeasible. Carriers and receivers highly value the correct calculation of the freight shipping costs prior to onward shipment or final destination, respectively. Shippers may under-report dimensions to decrease the cost of shipping, which causes revenue leakage for the carriers and risk of payment upon delivery for the receivers.
Volumetric apparatus' can be constructed relatively easily. However, their accuracy can be questionable. It would be beneficial were the accuracy of the measurements high, avoiding errors that could result in higher costs either to the customers or the shipper. Therefore, the freight industry could benefit from devices, methods, and systems that help dimension freight in a way that is efficient, cost-effective, and minimally interferes with the normal flow of freight traffic.